Challenge
The challenge proposed by the Board has the title: “How can we measure the authorized consumption of unregistered water (other than leakages) to determine such magnitude in the local supply systems for better financial and environmental management? ”
This challenge responds to the needs described below:
The Unregistered Water (UW) structure in the water supply networks is divided into losses and unregistered authorised consumption. Unregistered authorised consumption is mainly originated at fire hydrants and hose faucets installed in the municipal supply systems.
The former is used by the fire brigade in fire-fighting tasks and the latter is municipal use, mainly plant watering, street cleaning and other municipal uses. As these are facilities without control or measurement, their incorrect use is usual. Nowadays, the flow applied to these uses is estimated without any procedure or calculation algorithm.
The Board wishes to improve the present situation through knowledge of that authorised consumption in order to make adequate use of natural and material resources. To paraphrase Lord Kelvin (British Mathematical Physicist 1824 – 1907): “What is not defined cannot be measured. What is not measured cannot be improved. What is not improved is always degraded”.
Full information about the challenge (pdf)
Bases of the Challenge for Consorcio de aguas Bilbao Bizkaia (pdf)
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ASKED BY THE PARTICIPATING ENTITIES:
1. Q: to make a better proposal, we would like you to solve the following question. We see that the pilot test in the Municipality of Santurtzi with a network of 92 hydrants and 33 fire hydrants. Could you provide us with a map of the locations?
A: We share the map of the situation of the fire hydrants in the Municipality of Santurtzi.
2. Q: Are there any character or word limitations in the form fields?
A: There is no character limit per field. What we would much appreciate is to be as concise as possible, without losing information.
3. Q: although the number of consumption points is identified (+13,000 between fire hydrants and general public supply); We would like to know if there is a record or approximate scale of the number of units / equipment that make use of them. For example: "some 1,200 recurring users among 200 fire trucks, 400 tanker trucks for street cleaning and another 600 consumers...". In total, how many people / vehicles make use of those +13,000 consumption points?
A: on the one hand, there is no record or approximate scale of the number of units / equipment because the use of fire hydrants is a function of the emergencies that occur and with respect to municipal uses it is very varied because we have 72 municipalities very differentiated. The municipality of Santurtzi, in which we are going to carry out the pilot test, has 5 tanker trucks, approximately 10 for irrigation and other uses.
4. Q: a graphic of the Watener company appears in the presentation. Do we have to synchronize with them the sending of information? (i.e. from our solution to their databases?)
A: regarding the synchronization of the information, it should be done with the Consorcio de Aguas database, that is, the information should be deposited in our system.
5. Q: is the water network sectorized into District Metering Areas (DMA)?
A: the water network is sectorized in DMAs. In the 3,500 km of network we have 376 DMAs.
6. Q: is the water Supply into the DMAs or service areas metered and monitored online and how?
A: the supply to the sectors is monitored by flow meters and the data is stored every 5 minutes. It is sent to the central system in real time or every 24 hours depending on the case.
7. Q: is there an online interface to the supply data?
A: yes, the data can be analysed in a SCADA or in the SaaS analytics and planning solutions Baseform.
8. Q: for Metered Authorized consumption is there and Advanced Metering Infrastructure for online readings? If not, what is the source of data for the metered consumption
A: for the measured authorized consumption, according to the sector we have:
- Quarterly reading system.
- An advanced measurement system by remote reading on a fixed network with hourly data of all the authorized consumption measured.
9. Q: is there online monitoring of pressure points or other hydraulic devices?
A: pressure points: we have more than 100 network pressure points and dynamic pressure management; other hydraulic devices: yes, valves, chlorinators, tanks, pumps, etc.
10. Q: is any further available information regarding water loss in the system? Such as previous water loss audit?
A: yes, we have information on the leakage levels of each of the sectors like IWA Water Balance.
11. Q: is any Active Leakage Control policy applied in the system?
A: one of the most important indicators in our quality system is the decrease in NRW, and therefore the importance of this challenge.
12. Q: is there information on the level of leakage?
A: yes, we have information on the leakage levels of each of the sectors. For this we use indicators such as ILI, IWA Water Balance, M3 / km / h (qvr), etc.
13. Q: what type of Information Systems or analysis tools are available, such as: Geographical Information
A: geographical Information System (GIS), SCADA, Hydraulic Model and SaaS analytics and planning solutions Baseform.
14. Q: we understand that this detector must be a non-intrusive system, that is, it must not interfere with the mechanical system used to connect with a hose. Is this correct?
A: It could be intrusive as long as it does not influence the supply flow rate of the equipment.
15. Q: in the photographs, we see different types of hydrants, we understand that the solution ed should be valid for any type of hydrant, isn't it?
A: Indeed.
16. Q: How is the opening system of the hydrant? We assume that by anchoring a crank and turning it. If so, would it be correct to determine the amount of water flow based on the number of turns the handle is turned? Does the crank start and end of the stroke? That is, does the crank stop when the mouth is fully open? Could we have a more detailed information with the installed crank?
A: attached diagrams characteristics and photos of Hydrant and hydrant from a usual supplier.
17. Q: The document says about the communications network: “The proposed solution must be able to measure or estimate the volume of consumption in this equipment and it would have to communicate these values, at least, daily to the Consortium's network. The communication network must be reliable and of low consumption”. It is not specified what topology the network should have. Could there be a concentrator-coordinator to receive the data from the network and then have it been the one in charge of uploading it to the cloud? Or, Should the data be sent directly to the cloud?
A: The network topology is not specified because none is excluded as long as it meets the required functionality.
18. Q: in terms of the situation of the fire hydrants in the Municipality of Santurtzi, there are more fire hydrants than the 33 which are the object of the challenge. The same goes for hydrants. How can we identify the mouths, both fire and irrigation, object of the Challenge?
A: It is not defined on which hydrants the challenge will be carried out, only that they will be selected afterwards.
18. G: Santurtziko udalerriko sute-ahoen kokapenaren planoan, Erronkaren xede diren 33 sute-ahoak baino gehiago ikusten dira. Gauza bera gertatzen da ureztatzeko ahoekin. Nola identifika ditzakegu Erronkaren xede diren sute- eta ureztatze-ahoak?
E: ez dago zehaztuta zer ahotan egingo den erronka, baina Santurtziko unibertsoaren a posteriori aukeratuko dira.